Trumpeting the yearlong 10th-anniversary celebration of its Graphix imprint, Scholastic has announced new projects from Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm, Kazu Kibuishi, Raina Telgemeier and Mike Maihack.

The brother-sister team of Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Babymouse, Squish) have created a Sunny Side Up, a semi-autobiographical for readers ages 8 to 12, set for release Aug. 25, the same date as Craig Thompson’s previously announced Space Dumplins.

In anticipation of the series debut, Dreistadt and Gibson shared six exclusive process pages with ROBOT 6 that follow the art from initial pencils (Dreistadt) to the inking stage (by Kelly Bastow), followed by colored pages by Tracy Liang and, finally, letters by Britt Wilson. Along with the process pages, Dreistadt and Gibson also detailed the influences and challenges behind bringing Capture Creatures to KaBOOM!

Banned Books Week | National Public Radio’s Lynn Neary covers Banned Books Week, with interviews with frequently banned creators Jeff Smith (Bone) and Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants). Although Smith acknowledges he was initially shocked to see his acclaimed fantasy adventure among the 10 most challenged books of 2013, he soon came to terms with the distinction. “I mean my heroes are on this list,” he says. “People like Mark Twain and Steinbeck and Melville and Vonnegut, so part of me also kind of says, ‘OK, fine I can be on this list.'” [NPR]

Banned Books Week | Michael Dooley runs a brief excerpt from Fun Home, and Keith Knight does a show-and-tell of his comics that were too controversial for some newspapers. [Print Magazine]

Scholastic’s Graphix graphic novel imprint turns 10 next year, and editorial director David Saylor announced at Comic-Con International that the imprint will kick off its anniversary with a new edition of its launch title, Jeff Smith’s Bone #1: Out from Boneville.

The new edition will include a new poem by Smith, illustrated in full color, as well as Bone tribute art from 16 creators, including Craig Thompson (Blankets, Habibi), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Sisters), Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants) Jeffrey Brown (Vader’s Little Princess) and Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet).

The new edition will be published simultaneously in the United States and Canada.

In addition to Bone, Graphix is the publisher of Telgemeier’s Smile, Drama and the upcoming Sisters, Kibuishi’s Amulet and Doug TenNapel’s Bad Island and Cardboard. Seven Graphix books have made The New York Times graphic books bestseller list, and Sisters is likely to join them, as it is debuting with an initial print run of 200,000.

Saylor made the announcement Thursday night at Scholastic’s Comic-Con party, where Smith and most of the contributing artists were present. The poem was projected on a wall above the venue.

Debuting today at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas, the free guide provides an overview frequently challenged comics, and offers tips for readers on how to report and fight censorship and suggestions for librarians, retailers and educators for planning Banned Books Week celebrations.

A PDF of the handbook can be downloaded here; bundles of the printed edition can be ordered on the CBLDF website or through Diamond Comic Distributors.

The organization has also released the first of its discussion guides, designed to begin conversations, and address concerns and misconceptions, about specific comics, including Fun Home, Persepolis and Watchmen.

This year’s Banned Books Week, slated for Sept. 21-27, will spotlight comics and graphic novels, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Banned Books Week planning committee announced today. Graphic novels have been the subject of a number of library and school challenges over the past few years, and the American Library Association’s most recent list of frequently challenged books includes, incredibly, Jeff Smith’s Bone.

Comics and graphic novels are somewhat more vulnerable to challenges because of their visual nature: While one would actually have to read To Kill a Mockingbird or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to find potentially offensive content, all a would-be guardian of morality has to do with comics is flip one open and leaf through the pages looking for Naughty Bits. That’s apparently what happened when the Chicago Public Schools attempted to remove Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis from classrooms; the move was based on a few panels taken out of context.

Bone, Jeff Smith’s critically acclaimed fantasy adventure about three cousins swept up in epic populated by dragons, rat creatures and evil forces, was among the books most frequently challenged last year in schools and libraries.

The news comes from the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, which has released its annual Top 10 List of Frequently Challenged Books as part of National Library Week. In 2013, the organization received 307 reports on attempts to remove or restrict materials from library bookshelves and school curricula across the United States. That’s down from 464 official challenges in 2012.

Bone came in at No. 10 on the list, which was led once again by Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series and populated by the likes of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eyes and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (see the full rundown below). The last comic to make the list was Kim Dong Hwa’s The Color of Earth in 2011.

The ALA’s 2014 State of American Libraries Report doesn’t cite specific challenges to Bone or reveal how many there have been, but it does offer broad reasons for the objections: “political viewpoint, racism, violence.”

Although the challenges last year apparently failed to attract media attention, there was a good deal of coverage of complaint filed in 2010 by a parent in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, objecting to the depictions of drinking, smoking, gambling and sexual situations in Bone. However, a school district committee voted 10-1 to keep the books on library shelves. (There’s a Comic Book Legal Defense Fund case study, if you’re interested.)

Comics | Archie Co-CEO Jon Goldwater, writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Francesco Francavilla have a few things to say about the new zombie series Afterlife With Archie. “We are taking a series of characters known to be lighthearted and young adult-oriented and doing a horror comic with them, so the mood, atmosphere, and setting are very important to make this a believable horror and not a comedy horror,” says Francavilla, who’s also the creator of The Black Beetle. “Fortunately, I am really good at making things dark and ominous.” [The Associated Press]

Next weekend SPX will once again be held in Bethesda, Maryland, where they will have not only a tote bag designed by Bone and RASL creator Jeff Smith, but also a limited edition print featuring the main characters from both those books. Signed copies will also be included in the SPX Limited Edition Print Set, which includes all the art created for SPX 2013 by Smith, Jeremy Sorese, Farel Dalrymple, Ed Piskor, Peter Bagge, Michael DeForge and many more.

WonderCon Anaheim 2013 kicked off yesterday at the Anaheim Convention Center, with badges for Friday selling out at some point during the day. Saturday and three-day badges already sold out, so it looks like just Sunday is left if you were hoping to attend but didn’t purchase your badge in advance.

There weren’t a lot of announcements coming out of the show yesterday, and in fact I’m not completely sure what could be considered “WonderCon news” and what was just, um, news, but here’s a round-up of stuff you may have missed from Friday:

• 2014 will bring a crossover between DC’s two Earths, according to Earth 2 writer James Robinson. “If I’m talking about a big event that’s happening in 2014, it’s all these characters meeting each other,” said Robinson, citing Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Justice Society during his spotlight panel in Anaheim. Robinson also said his goal was to make sure the writers involved in the event were invested in the story, and described himself as “the point guy” when it comes to the event, saying that Scott Snyder, Geoff Johns and Dan DiDio are also very involved. Earth 2 is also getting its own Batman, and the book will also feature the introductions of Starman (Ted Knight), Red Arrow (Earth 2’s version of Green Arrow), Hourman, Wildcat, Mister Miracle and Big Barda in the future.

Publishing | Comics sales were up 22 percent in the direct market over January 2012, and graphic novels increased by nearly 38 percent. This good news is tempered a bit by the fact there were five Wednesdays in this January (or 25 percent more Wednesdays, if you want to look at it that way), but that fifth week is usually a quiet one for new releases, so I think we can call this a win. The retail news and analysis site ICv2 credits Marvel NOW! and a strong backlist for the boost. [ICv2]

With the Comic-Con International coming up next week, no doubt eager fans are getting ready for their trip to San Diego. What should I bring? How much cash do I need? And most importantly, what should I wear?

You’ve got your chest covered for at least one day if you choose to purchase one of these cool T-shirts from the Cartoon Books booth. They feature full-face action from those lovable stupid, stupid rat creatures that always gave the Bone cousins a hard time. Adult shirts will be in brown, and the kids sizes will be in purple.

Head on over to the Cartoon Books site for more details on what else you can get at the booth. Smith won’t be there this year, but they’ll still have the shirts, a new print and more.